And the court will continue to explore issues of patent law and the pre-emption of state regulation by federal law.
There have, however, been instances when generic producers and originator companies in developed and developing countries have disagreed on issues of patent linkage and/or the extent of data protection.
There are also concerns about the unclear nature of the use of genetic resources in the advent of GMO and related issues of patenting and biopiracy since small traditional fielders would like to benefit from their many years of sustaining seed biodiversity maintained over centuries [5].
Within the last month, the Federal Trade Commission, along with a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, have brought to the fore the issues of patent enforcement and appropriate patent licensing schemes.
In fact, the original head of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health resigned in the early 1990's to protest the issuing of patents for genes.
The lawsuit that nearly shut down the country's BlackBerry e-mail devices vaulted the normally obscure issue of patents into the national spotlight this winter.
The issue of patents and genetic technology is one of growing importance as a flood of companies enter the booming sector and scientific advances allow more and more advanced genetic manipulation.
"We know Microsoft's decision to join OIN may be viewed as surprising to some," EVP Erich Andersen writes in a blog post, "it is no secret that there has been friction in the past between Microsoft and the open source community over the issue of patents.
The application and issuing of patents for various enzymes is expected to grow in the future due to green technologies.
About 95percentt of all patents are issued for inventions, as distinct from the small number of patents issued for designs and botanical plants.
Dr. Kurzweil has other graphs showing a century of exponential growth in the number of patents issued, the spread of telephones, the money spent on education.
